Author: Dr. William Rassman

I am a 24 year old male. Overall my hairs are pretty dense and thick but i occasionally suffer from alopecia areata, where a small spot of baldness appears but always goes away with 100% recovery of all hair. This has happened 2 or 3 times with me in the past 5 years and always happens after times of stress.

The problem is whenever i get these spots the hair at my crown also thin out and after 2 or 3 episodes i have a fair bit of thinning at the crown.The spots themselves make a 100% recovery. My question is first of all is the thinning at the crown due to the alopecia areata condition and stress combined and not hereditary?

Furthermore I believe that I am only concerned about having a full head of hair till 35. After that i wouldnt care. Is there a possibility that i can have a transplant at the crown and create a master plan that can address my hair loss as it comes, if it comes? Cant young people in their twenties do something that helps them get their thinning crowns filled and also work out something for the future?

Last time I checked, our lives are not usually over at the age of 35. A Master Plan doesn’t stop in your mid-30s, as that would be a Partial Plan.

I do not know what type of hair loss you have. What you describe could be alopecia areata, but I do not know (especially since AA does not reoccur over and over on the crown). Hair loss from stress generally happen diffusely. If you do have alopecia areata or stress hair loss, a hair transplant is not recommended.

I’d love to hear from you 11 years from now when you’re 35 to see if you still feel the same way about your hair.

Dr Rassman,

I am on Minoxidil 5% topical for more than 8 months now, and beginning to see modest yet much appreciated results. I love massages. I remember reading years ago that scalp massages can damage hair in early anagen phase. Would I be putting my newly growing hair at risk if I indulge? For the purposes of your answer, please assume a massage once a month by a skilled masseur applying reasonable amount of pressure.

Where did you read that scalp massage can damage anagen hairs? The only thing I remember writing was a quip about a very vigorous head massage that could potentially cause hair loss in miniaturized hairs — but not damage hairs that are in anagen (growth).

If you must indulge in scalp massage, go for it! If you are scared you’ll lose the hair, then don’t get the scalp massage.

Doc,
I have an area above my right ear where the hair is about 75% thinner — the hair itself, not the coverage, though that’s thinner too. There is also a substantial amount of grey hair here, but not the thick scraggly kind, these are also finer than the rest of my hair. Of note — I don’t have any grey hairs anywhere else but this area. No one in my family appears to have a similar condition. The only thing I can attribute it to is cell phone usage. I only hold the phone to my right ear, and while I don’t spend all day on the phone, I do take 20-30 calls/day. I’m interested in your comments.

Thanks

Some people have patches of different colored hair. This is also known as mosaicism, where different parts of the body have a different genetic make up. This can be normal and it is just the way you are. I do not know if this is related to cell phone usage, but I would think if it is from cell phone usage, you’d see many men and women walking around with patchy colored hair.

Dr. Rassman
First of all I just wanted to say what a great blog you guys have!

I’m a 29 year old male with a thick head of hair and have been to the dermatologist recently and he said I have no signs of male pattern baldness but maybe going into a mature hair. I did the wrinkle brow test, but honestly my hairline even in old pictures when I was little was never really near my highest crease. How can you measure a mature hairline other than wrinkle brow? Because like I said my hairline never was like that even when I was seven years old.

I also notice that on top of my head I get hairs that are short and look thinner if I pull them out and the rest of my hairs are thick and coarse but all over my hairs seem to have different degrees and the dermatologist told me this was totally normal but I just wanted to ask you if it is? The lady that cuts my hair since I was twelve thought I was crazy when I ask her this, because she told me that she also has hairs that are thinner and thicker all over the hair and everyone does do to different hair cycles and its nothing to worry about. I do have a little OCD so I might be obsessing about something that’s totally normal.

I know the hair bulk test that you guys do is good and I told this to the lady that cuts my hair and she said if I really wanted to buy the Haircheck device that she would do it for me if I was worried and to ease my mind. I saw the video of the guy getting it done on my computer from the HairCheck website. In the video I notice they measured his hair in the middle and wanted to know if you can measure it at the hairline instead? Would the density in the front of the hairline be a little different than the back (donor area) even for a person with no signs of balding (MPB)? Do you always have to measure in the center or can you measure the left and right side head? Is measuring in the center the only way to do this bulk measurement test more accurately? Is there also a normal amount for a non balding person that the hair in front can be a little different than the hair in the back (donor hair) like percentage wise which would be consider normal?

Thanks for your time and hope to hear back from you soon! Sorry so long also You can publish this if you like too.

Movement of the hairline to the mature position is common by your age. Measuring the mature hairline using the wrinkled brow is really more of a loose “rule”. I’ve written about that here.

Hair cycling is normal as your follicles go through different phases of growth (anagen, catagen, and telogen), so yes, your dermatologist was correct that it is normal to have some hairs with different degrees of thickness depending on where it is in the growth process. If you want to know if you are balding just behind the frontal hairline, the HairCheck is good to give a number to compare one part of the scalp to the next. You can measure at the hairline, but you should make measurements in multiple parts of the scalp.

Snippet from the article:

Long-haul truck drivers already face an increased risk for left-side skin cancer because of the increased exposure to ultraviolet rays through their driver’s side window. But according to new research, the risks don’t stop there. Now, scientists say truck drivers have a greater chance of developing aggressive prostate cancer, and the latest theories point toward prolonged vibration as a possible suspect.

Presented at the American Association for Cancer Research, the findings also linked aggressive prostate cancer risks with men who worked in garden shops and in construction and finance. Conversely, they drew no link between cancer and men who worked as exterminators, landscapers, or animal caretakers. Those who were truck drivers faced an aggressive prostate cancer risk four times greater than educators — a profession the researchers used as a baseline, as they presumed educators faced none of the same “whole body vibrations” as truck drivers.

Read the rest — Truck Drivers At Risk For Aggressive Prostate Cancer: A Theory Of Vibrations